Author
Topic: new bee-keeper (Read 4238 times)

Hello all my name is Jay Reel. My wife and I are first year bee-keepers. We got or bees and hived them two days ago. I forgot to put the slatted rack onto the hive as the hive had been assembled prior to recieving the rack. The question I have is this. Will it disturb the bees too much if in a week or so during my first inspection I add the rack to the hive? I also put the entrance reducer in with the hole down. I have watched the bees the last two days and they do not seem to have a problem. Is it in the bees best interest to filp the reduser up so the entrance does'nt get clogged or will it be fine? Help of any sort is greatly appreciated.

Shouldn't be a problem with adding the slatted rack. Just try to do it as no disruptive as possible. I would just pick the hive body off the bottom board and have someone slip in the rack and then set the hive body down.

The entrance reducer shouldn't be a problem either. The bees are active enough this time of year to keep the entrance clean. Blocked entrances become an issue during winter when there is a high mortality rate and limited activity to keep the entrance clean.

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"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison

It shouldn't take more than 30sec for one person to pick the hive off the bottom board and the other person to slip the rack in. I don't think what time really matters. If you do it mid day, there will be less bees in the hive (out foraging) but more traffic coming and going. If you do it after dark, there will be more bees, but no traffic. Since it is a package, the number of bees is still relatively small and will most likely be up in the hive at night, so I would probably do it after dark.

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"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison

Just finished my first inspection. I am proud to report it went through without a hitch. My only concern, and it's small is how many bees if any should be dead in the top feeder? There was about 25-30 dead bees in the top feeder. I am fairly sure the cover was on snugly. I got three large burr-combs from on and around the queens cage. At first I did not see any eggs on the burr-comb untill further inspection in my kitchen. Eggs were visible on the two surounding frames aswell. My slatted rack was a much easier install then I figured. I took robo's advise and left the entrance reduser as is. One last question I have is when do I know when to stop feeding the bees with the top feeder?

Just keep an eye on how much of the syrup they are storing. As long as they are consuming it to build wax, keep giving it. If they are storing it and blocking up too much space preventing room for the queen to lay eggs, then stop. When a good nectar flow starts, they will stop taking syrup.

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"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison

You don't necessarily have to worry about the nectar flow. When it starts, the bees will stop taking your syrup (they prefer natural over the syrup). What you need to watch for is that while they are taking syrup, they don't store too much away and clog up the brood area. If they store too much away, they will become syrup bound (no room for the queen to lay eggs because the cells all have syrup in them).

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"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison

manowar422

I ordered these frames from Walter Kelly co. out of Clarksville KYThey were very pleased to custom make these for me and did notcharge me very much more than the regular frame prices. I boughta box of fifty at a time. I will say however that they will not do specialorders during the peak of the season. I place these orders in the fallfor delivery during the winter months.

This year I will order regular frames (with solid bottom bars and solidtop bars) and cut the bevels myself.